DEAR DIARY

 It seems that I have been remiss in updating the blog; I don't seem to have posted since last summer! Fortunately, Uriah, our roving reporter from Cyprus, has stepped in and posted several game reports whenever he's back in Blighty.

That's a shame, as the whole purpose of this blog was as a personal wargames diary; I find that's it really useful to look back and past games and projects as inspiration for current projects. I think there are three main reasons for this lacuna. Firstly, it takes time to put blog posts together. Secondly, we've been playing a lot of games using smaller scale figures, which just aren't very photogenic. Thirdly, I find that in a good game I get so wrapped up in playing that I simply forget to take any photographs.

So, with that in mind, here's 'Wot I did on my holiday'.

My last real post was August 2023, chronicling my solo 'What a Cowboy' campaign. This was followed immediately by a second campaign at the club, narrated by Uriah.

We then moved on to some excellent Anglo-Zulu Wars games, using Firelock Games' 'Blood and Steel'. Once again recounted by Uriah.

With Uriah moving on to the ACW, I continued with the Firelock Games stable and ran some great 'Blood and Plunder' games. Unfortunately, over three games I think I only managed about two photos.

Moving on from the skirmish level gaming we moved on to battalion level WW2, with TooFatLardies / Reisswitz Press 'O Group'. We played this using 10mm figures and ran scenarios in both Normandy and the Western Desert. Unfortunately,  I only took snaps of the terrain for Normandy!

December saw a return to WW1 and a 'big push' on the painting front. I finally gave in to a long held temptation and bought some 28mm figures for Gallipoli and repainted and rebased a moderately large 15mm collection for the same theatre.

Woodbine Turks - work in progress

Woodbine Royal Naval Division - work in progress

15mm Turks - repaint and rebase

15mm Empire - repaint and rebase in progress

Uriah was back for a short Christmas break, so we ended the year with a couple of 28mm Gallipoli skirmish games, using 'Blood and Valor'.

As a Christmas treat, I bought myself two 10mm forces for the Western Desert. They were largely painted by Boxing Day!

Sticking with Firelock Games, we started 2024 with a game of 'Blood and Crowns'.

In January, I got to field my newly revamped 15mm WW1 collection. We played several Gallipoli themed games using 'Square Bashing'.

February was to be naval themed, with 17th century fleet actions. We tried 'General-at-Sea' and 'Rolling Thunder'. Both rulesets use ships mounted in multiples, representing squadrons, giving the potential for some very large fleet actions. 

It was then a return to the Western Desert and I got to field my new Christmas toys in some games of 'Rommel'.

My birthday game this year was a solo game of 'Oak and Iron'. A great game with a very clever system - with the bonus that it fits on the kitchen table.

In March we moved on to some more Sam Mustafa games, with an old favourite - 'Maurice'. We played in 10mm with some Seven Years War figures by Pendraken.

Continuing the Sam Mustafa theme, we moved on to Napoleonics with 'Blucher'. This time in 6mm.

April saw us preparing for the return of the clubs annual TooFatLardies games day - WorLard (our first since the great plague). 

We started with a game of 'Bag the Hun' in 1/144 scale and the USAF over Germany.

Then keeping the WW2 theme - in almost the same scale (10mm) we rolled out 'O Group' for a game set in Normandy.

So, dear diary, that brings us up to date. Hopefully, we'll have some more pictures from WorLard after the coming weekend.